Dear Mr. Vice President,
I hope this letter find you in good health. Have you really considered the state of affairs of the PPP and government since 2021?
I have been a lifelong supporter of the PPP. I grieve when I observe what has been happening in our party. The stench of corruption is unbearable. Today, it is not the party and the government that I once knew when Comrade Cheddi and Janet were in charge. Party members are no longer consulted and their voluntary views are ignored. Party workers are hollered at, belittled, disrespected, and marginalised. A bunch of hustlers, conmen, con-women, connivers, fraudsters, almost all new comers who did not spend a day in struggle against fraudulent elections and don’t have a clue how the party was able to re-return to government have captured the party.
They collared most of the resources for themselves and their families. Those who slaved to get the party back into government, worked the ground door to door and street to street to get the party supporters out on election day, guardians of democracy to push back against rigging, watchmen of ballot boxes to prevent tampering have been shunted aside and treated as outsiders. They have been unable to access basic resources for communities and their families. The door is closed to them, office after office. They feel they no longer belong to the PPP which has been their political home since 1950. They have given up on PPP and in politics in general and looking for a new home.
In addition to working the ground before and on election day, I too spent months guarding the ballot boxes, sacrificing my livelihood and family. I should have listened to my wife and don’t get involved in politics. I can assure you if the situation arises again, I will listen to my family and don’t join any guardians of democracy or defenders of the ballot box. And most of my colleagues who were there nightly in 2020 informed me they too will not come out again to guard ballot boxes. They will not even vote.
You, Mr. Vice President, will have to turn to the new hustler beneficiaries of PPP rule, those who have captured Jagan’s working-class party and put die hard supporters to pasture. ‘Neemakharamism’ and marginalization of comrades are at their highest since the party been in government for thirty four years. Since Irfaan Ali became President, religious cliques have been formed. Those on the outside are marginalized.
My colleagues and friends who always voted PPP said the party has turned out to be worse than the PNC in managing the affairs of government and in accountability and transparency. Corruption is everywhere. We see it in the new mansions and multiple vehicles acquired by officials in government and we hear about it from the beneficiaries themselves of how much wealth they have acquired in less than four years and in aspects of their incredible lifestyle, unimagined five years ago. People have changed in their attitudes from when they were in opposition, for self, family and friends only. Is this the change we fought for – to replace one set of con artists with another?
I bring to your attention that the PPP barely won the election by about 6500 votes (PPP against the rest of the opposition) and by one seat and with intervention to protect the ballots and democracy. Thousands of PPP supporters migrated over the last three years and thousands stated they will not vote again. I and my friends and their families will not vote again. Or if we do, it will have to be a new credible party with a new leader that has no baggage.
Mr. VP, in addition to the baggage you brought during your tenure, the party is now saddled with baggage of Irfaan and several Ministers, the brotherhood, the conmen, those that they party has adopted from the PNC and AFC, and all the broken promises including the big one that you will renegotiate the Exxon contract. This load is too heavy for PPP to carry in the next election. And the party does not seem ready to shed any load; in fact, it is taken on more baggage by giving contracts to misfits and those who were known to physically attack PPP supporters.
At any rate, even if you, Mr VP, is willing to shed loads, it might too late to try to rectify the situation. The average PPP supporter on the ground is very clear as to what the PPP stands for now since the departure of the Jagan’s. Consult the pollster, he will give you an honest picture of ground reality. Many PPP supporters will not vote.
In the event of an election fiasco raising its ugly again, no PPP supporter is coming out on the road as in earlier elections. The party is on its own. It is time that you, Mr. VP, to find a plausible answer to the betrayed traditional PPP supporters.
Yours truly,
Tamesh Roopnarine
